Neal
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Everything posted by Neal
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I've got about two dozen pairs of old dagging shears; various sizes and both single and double sprung; beautiful old things. I doubt if mine would cut much any more without a lot of t.l.c. I used to have them all displayed on the bottom section of an old apple tree ladder...but now I'm married...for some reason my wife doesn't appreciate the fine art of rusty sheep shears...can't think why!
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I used pellets too (though no chickens for two years now thanks to Mr Tod) though my Welsumer survived almost exclusively on what she found in the garden herself...well, my garden and any others she fancied visiting!
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My personal favourite is the Ladersmorning I got free with my Lundhags; though I've only ever used it on them. It smells like an old shepherd's hut the morning after he's had a good fire going to warm up an orphaned lamb.
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I used to use the stuff that Brasher make for their boots (or rather "made" as they've now been taken over by Berghaus) on my Supalites and it worked ok. However, I read somewhere once somebody's opinion that (in the case of the supalite) the soles give out before the leather cracks too badly so he used to save his money and not bother. I tried it once with one old pair and would agree. Also, because the waterproofing is via a goretex liner sandwiched between two layers of leather, they still keep out the water even with that big crack which always develops across the bridge near the base
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I grew half a beard for comic relief...does that count?
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Surely it depends on where: an area of forest near where I live has a sign asking people to simply flick it into the bushes rather than wrap it in plastic and sometimes you can walk for hours with no hope of seeing a bin in some places.
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I'm thinking of putting in a soakaway too as my dog run is at the bottom of the garden and nowhere near any drains. I read somewhere that you need to make it about 3' x 3' but that it needs to be bigger if on clay; like mine. I'd have thought that, as clay is far less permeable, then digging further into it would make it less likely to drain away into the soil. Think I'll try the idea Leethedog has put forward. Also, do you fill it with just shingle/gravel or top with soil? Edited to add that mine is rarely hosed out...not because I'm a lazy sod (though that is true) but simply because th
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In the hope of getting this back to the original thread title...after that programme was originally aired there was a feature about this breeding project in National Geographic which I have a copy of. Also, purely by coincidence, my son and I actually met one of these foxes yesterday in our local petshop. The shop was having a birthday celebration (15% off etc) and had two raccoons, a skunk, an arctic fox and one of these silver foxes. The two foxes were curled up together in the same crate and, to be honest, I actually thought it was a pet red fox at first as it had been bred in that col
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No; but some can be a bit OCD!
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Definitely.
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That makes a lot of sense. I suppose that's what makes it so hard for people (sometimes) to find a good dog of a certain type after having owned one already i.e. it can be difficult working out precisely why it was so good compared to others. I prefer my old kelpie Rusty for his character (photo in my avatar taken about eight years ago but he's still just about bimbling about at over fifteen) but I must say the little bitch, Scout, has a higher prey drive. Like yours she started ferreting early and then I hit a lucky myxy patch (lucky for her and me: not the rabbits) when she was about a y
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One of the Alvestocracy eh!? I growed up in Bridgemary. Welcome!
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When I asked my son what they did with regards to it being St Georges Day at his school (he's six) he said they didn't do anything...yet they still always do Chinese New Year etc. Now, I've nothing against the latter but certainly not at the expense of the former. On the way home from school the previous day, when I was telling him a bit about St George and the dragon, he said that his "favourite parts of the UK" in reverse order were "England because of the dragon in the story...Scotland because they've got the Loch Ness Monster...and Wales because they've got their own dragon called Idr
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This sums up what my wife and friends and I were all having a conversation about recently. We all agreed that we tend to think of people older than us as being older but think of those younger than us as being from our generation. It's usually not until you start talking about your youth that it makes you realise your older than certain people. Like you, I was shocked last year when I too suddenly worked out I was closer to 60 than 30. Back to the original post though...I remember reading once that you know when you're getting old because you stop buying t shirts with logos and Frank Skinn
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Thanks Neal, and your right they do produce good lurchers, until I got this little bitch for the last few years I always had ACD first cross greyhound, all good workers but this little bitch has been the special one, her prey drive, scenting and ability to catch considering her lack of top end speed is great, still going strong at 7 but sadly probs my last dally with ACD, What do you think it is that gives her the edge over the previous ones you've had? Is it the addition of whippet (temperament/speed differences), the different ACD used, the sex (if your previous ones weren't bitches) or
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Australian Cattle Dog Cross And The New Whippet Pup
Neal replied to wild rover's topic in Lurchers & Running Dogs
I used to travel to Scotland and over Brough way for 25 years or more, lamping, ferreting and bushing, I stopped lamping about 7 years ago and the last couple of years ferreting were very wet, standing in two inches of water, soaked putting nets on etc, I started getting chest infections all the time and had pneumonia, Im in my early 60's and the ACD is 7 and I decide i was stopping travelling and serious work, so I didnt want another lurcher coz I wouldnt do it justice, hence the whippet, Im out local every morning bushing and ratching and wanted a little ratcher to knock about with, we do lu -
Strangest ones I ever saw were on a 3/4 collie 1/4 greyhound. Both were half blue and half brown but one was split vertically while the other was horizontal.
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We're thinking of getting a new BBQ and I remembered this thread. Is your one touch the one that has the self-cleaning thing on the bottom and the thermometer? I've read excellent reviews of this one but was wondering how necessary the self-cleaning and thermometer elements are for the extra money.
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I know I've said it before but...although I no longer own lurchers yours is one of the few that occasionally tempts me back every time I see her. Another comment I've made before but...although I have kelpies because they were imported to the UK because of their working ability whereas most ACDs were imported because they look like ACDs; it doesn't seem to effect their ability to produce quality lurchers. That's supposed to be a compliment to ACDs though it sounded a bit cack-handed!
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Very good point Trenchfoot. I started out with a collie x lurcher twentysomething years ago and it wasn't quite what I wanted. It turned out that what I really wanted was the character/attributes of a collie ( or kelpie in my case) so I guess that puts me at the extreme end of your equation. Having said that, although I mainly want a well behaved dog which thinks for itself but appreciates my input I do still want it to catch something occasionaly. I must admit I wasn't sure how true this was until I had a collie x whippet many years ago who showed me on numerous occasions that she wa
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Australian Cattle Dog Cross And The New Whippet Pup
Neal replied to wild rover's topic in Lurchers & Running Dogs
Wild Rover: what made you decide to add a whippet to the team? -
They may tell actors to never work with children and animals but in my opinion it's the best way to spend your life. Lovely photos!
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The latter for us then Neal haha Fuji, I never realised how dry the south east was until I moved away from it. In my late teens I moved to Cornwall for three years (very wet) and then up to Cumbria for about a year and a half (unbelievably even wetter). When my Cumbrian girlfriend at the time drove south to visit me in Hampshire one summer she said it was like going to Africa...she had no idea that grass turned brown and assumed it was always green! I remember several occasions when it would start raining one day and literally not stop for several days. The corner of the cottage I lived i
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Jukel123: I was never certain but that's what I've always assumed. I've since heard it was a regular haunt for "that kind of thing." The other "almost" scary thing I remember was when I used to spend a lot of time looking for birds' nests in my teens and spent a lot of time in and around Lee on the Solent golf course. On the side of the road there was a black bin bag and I nearly looked in it but decided not to...a few days later there was a news item on the local news about a paperboy finding a dead baby there! Moving on about twenty years and I was walking the dogs near Kingston cemetery
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...and the oak has already started to appear; before the ash. Oak before ash and we'll have a splash: ash before oak and we'll have a soak.
